I-Fit "LIVE" Woes

Just spent $350 on a new Nordic Track bike (GX 2.0), which is a lot for me graduating from a plain old bike with a turn knob..... anyway I was pretty bummed to find out that although it had several "workouts" on its graphical panel it doesn't allow any customization whatsoever. As in, say you want to add resistance later, change the time or make your own routine. Its not a really complicated thing, just want to set the time the little bars change, the timer and the level of resistance.

I then found out yes the bike will let you do this- if you sign up with I-Fit LIVE, pay another $100 for an i-Fit Wi-Fi broadcast cartridge, thats assuming you already have a Wi-Fi router and DSL subscription.....buy an I-Pod for say another $200 for a display and then continue to pay them $100 dollars a year, every year for the rest of your life.
I called Noridic and asked if their I-Fit cards had maybe an SD slot so I could just buy one workout, and they told me Nordic has 'advanced beyond this' and now all of their workouts are Internet driven and subscription. The advancement being going from you paying them once, to you paying them forever.

I don't need their live cycle tours of France, flashy colors or Jane Fonda style videos......just want to change the resistance settings and maybe set up a few routines. Is there any way possible to do this- buy an I-fit adapter, program hack, anything? Or does anyone know where I can still buy one of the old bikes. If I have to add another regular bill to my utilites and house payment, on top of the $650+ just to paddle a bike, this money pit is going back. I could buy a very decent 10 speed for that much and keep it until retirement for free.

I too wanted to create custom workouts on my NordicTarck 1500 treadmill. It has 24 built-in workouts and ZERO custom. Ifit is forcing people to use their software at $100 per year.

I believe there is a solution. I've read quite a lot into this and it seems you can try buying a SD/USB module, download WorkoutGenSD from http://mwganson.freeyellow.com/workoutgensd/ , load the custom workout onto a small USB or SD card and plug it into the machine.
I live in Canada and they don't sell them here. Late next month I'll be in the States and will get one to try.

Too bad they don't ask a real runner what they need from a treadmill and work with that. At the end of the day it's all about the money.

Update on the Nordictrack 1500 treadmill. Purchased a USB/SD module (not the new wireless).

Installed WorkoutGenSD on computer. Create my workout on the computer and load the SD card. Plug it in and it works. The program was written for treadmills without the capability of doing -3% inclines so there is a work around presently required. Disable the 'auto WU and CD'. First incline segment will be actual required. The next segments, you need to add 3% to each input thereafter and all will be fine.

I've contacted the software person and haven't heard back, but hopefully this will be updated. But as it is, anyone can create there own program in this manner.
The module is sold online at Walmarts in the USA for <$60. Here in Canada from Icon for $120. They include a 1 year membership that I will not even activate.
Cheers

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